No, Sean Payton wasn’t throwing a stray potshot at his special teams coordinator.
The Broncos’ head coach did, though, continue to express dissatisfaction — bordering on disgust — with his team’s special teams play.
After an all-around special teams disaster in an 18-15 win over the Texans Sunday, Payton pointed to late substitutions in the kicking game and offered a pointed statement: “We’ll get that cleaned up, or we’ll find someone else to do it.” On a Monday conference call, though, Payton clarified that “someone else” was referring to his players’ execution, not Darren Rizzi’s coaching.
“If you’re paying attention, I’m referring to players that aren’t on the field that need to be, all right,” Payton said. “Coaching is outstanding. We’ll get that cleaned up.
“My point is, there’s 10 on the field and there’s supposed to be 11,” Payton continued. “Then, that player that’s supposed to be out there, I’ll find someone else to do his job.”
That was the genesis of Payton’s frustration: The tape revealed that players were running out late on kickoffs, the head coach said. Couple that with technique that “wasn’t good” on the Texans’ first-quarter blocked field goal of kicker Wil Lutz, and it added up to a head coach who didn’t exactly sound sunshine-and-rainbows after another fourth-quarter win.
“If you’re supposed to be one of the 11 on — take any unit — and you’re on the bench,” Payton said, speaking on late substitutions, “then I got a problem.”
The Broncos have gotten terrific contributions from safety Devon Key, who leads the team in special teams tackles and made a couple of plays on kickoffs Sunday. They also activated ace specialist J.T. Gray for the first time against the Texans, after signing him in mid-October. Still, none of it was enough to prevent Rizzi’s units from sagging against Houston, and the first-year coordinator may be forced to shake up his personnel entering Thursday night’s matchup with the Raiders.
Broncos trying to keep OLBs fresh: Star pass-rushers Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper played just a combined 70 snaps on Sunday against the Texans, with Cooper in particular playing less than half of Denver’s total defensive reps. Payton clarified Monday that the Broncos are trying to keep them fresh, given a quick turn into Thursday’s game. Rookie outside linebacker Que Robinson played 23 snaps against the Texans.
“We did have an extra outside linebacker up … I think it’s worked out well,” Payton said. “We’re going to hit a stretch here, obviously, where the health of those players are important. I think we’ve done a good job keeping them fresh.”
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